sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
San Francisco has done that too, gotta look at the fine print or at least shoot an email at the people in charge turns out the price for electricity generation is "cheaper" however the cost to "transport it" is more expensive so it ends up usually costing the same or more than PG&E, oh PG&E is the one transporting it (basically cost of line maintenance). And yeah there are laws that let municipalities automatically opt you in, you can get out of it but if they required people to opt in they'd get a lot less.
Unfortunately I ruined my perfect streak with December, so sad. Didn't end up costing me anything because I have well over 2000 kWh "banked" but still it was a point of pride (only 3.26kWh of panels too).
See what you can do if you don't have big honking tank leeching away your life savings to give executives in the power industries a luxurious lifestyle?
Now as to the OP that's a tricky thing, for me it always seemed the biggest expense in the hobby is the cost to simply stay constant what I mean is how much it costs for utilities, supplements to keep the tank going, and periodic replacement cost of equipment (which is largely an unknown). Things like the initial purchase of equipment I feel there is a lot more wiggle room in that, the cost of livestock can also easily be mitigated as long as you are able to set your bar "low" for what you want and all that basically are self inflicted costs bases on what you have been craving (or tempted as the case often is) for your system (whether as an upgrade or an initial purchase).
As for whether or not I feel those in the industry have excessive margins I would like to say yes but the reality is I don't know. I mean I see how expensive something like a Tunze stream pump is and then compare it to a clone like a Jebao pump (back when they did what looked to be really close to identical clones) and you can say "well the Tunze is higher quality, but is that really the only difference I'm paying for? or are some Tunze execs driving around high end BMWs as a result of brand loyalty?" and for something like an LED light (I won't mention specific companies since most apply) but that's definitely an area where anyone with a bit of know how can spec together the prices to build the same thing and that often is going to be considerably cheaper and that is without getting any sort of bulk discounts on materials which said manufacturer most likely is getting but then there's the idea of how much does labor cost them (whether it's people or a machine doing the job)? should I be paying for their marketing? what exactly does some executive in company XYZ really 'deserve' to make? It gets complicated and some of those questions simply really can't be answered in any way other than opinionated responses.
Bottom line is a lot of this hobby is largely driven by making us desire "flashy stuff" they will argue that we absolutely "NEED" to have it or else! I mean who hasn't heard of a company selling a particular product say something along the lines of "Yes it does cost a lot of money, but don't you want to make sure the thousands you invested into the tank stays stable?" While sure there absolutely is some truth in that, they are very cleverly using words to get people to believe they need their product (not a competitors). I mean hey doesn't that Royal Exclusiv Dream Box just look sexy? Don't you want to spend 2 grand on it? Or would you like to get a $50 glass tank and some silicone to put baffles in it for a piece of equipment who's job it is to hide your equipment (think about that).
So yeah, complicated answer, and I don't think there's really a solution other than to tell people to vote with their wallets but unfortunately that isn't really an useful option either as you might have 99 people scoff at $1000 for a very common anemone that may look a bit different under pigment changing LED lights, but if the person selling it gets that 1 person it makes it all right.
